I had a moment yesterday where I realized I really like the person I grew up to be. It was an odd moment for me because I had this immediate urge to share it with someone but I couldn't really envision calling someone up and saying, "hey, guess what? I just realized that I like myself!" Pretty cheesetastic. But it's true, and it's significant, so I decided to share it with you fine people.
In other news, I'm moving on Saturday. I'm actually 90% done with the packing, which is completely unheard of and I'm fully expecting something incredible to happen between now and then that will set me back and make me have to start over. We'll see.
This is gonna have to be a short entry because I have to run to a meeting. I love the idea of meetings...they sound so important but then when you actually get into them it's just a bunch of the same yahoos in a room talking about the same work crap. And I've got wall to wall meetings these next two days for KCDL. I like going to these though because it gives me the illusion that I have some control over how we provide support for the high school program. Sometimes an illusion is all you need...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
A really good day
I had an incredible day today. I started seeing this therapist last week and today was my second appointment. Boy, I did not expect to start seeing things differently so soon, but today's appointment was a real eye-opener! I won't go into detail about it here, but suffice it to say that I came out of the session with a totally different perspective on some recent events and I could not be happier about that.
T started seeing a therapist several months ago when we first split up, and since then she has been browbeating me (um..in a good way?) to find my own and get my sanity on. Well anyway, she was totally right, even after only two sessions I am feeling like therapy is the best! thing! ever! and I think everybody should go get some if they haven't already.
On another note, Brian and I have often talked about the idea of running a marathon together in some exotic location (usually somewhere in Europe) at some predetermined time in the future, and today I decided where and when that is going to happen. I'm not going to say where, though I am pretty sure I'm set on the location, but the when part is February 2010. So see, I'm giving myself a good long time to get into running shape, so as not to stress myself too much. I've got a ways to go before my body is ready to take that kind of a physical beating. So anyway, I'm going to start now. My big strategy for this phase of my training? Walk more. Nothing specific, no calendars or plans, no mileage requirements or timelines. I'm simply going to walk more than I am currently walking now. I'm going to walk when it is convenient and when I feel like it. I'm going to go at my own pace and only as far as I want to go. It actually sounds kinda fun.
Today, as I walked from work to the bus stop instead of waiting for the train, I thought smugly to myself "I'm in training for a marathon." Awesome. :)
T started seeing a therapist several months ago when we first split up, and since then she has been browbeating me (um..in a good way?) to find my own and get my sanity on. Well anyway, she was totally right, even after only two sessions I am feeling like therapy is the best! thing! ever! and I think everybody should go get some if they haven't already.
On another note, Brian and I have often talked about the idea of running a marathon together in some exotic location (usually somewhere in Europe) at some predetermined time in the future, and today I decided where and when that is going to happen. I'm not going to say where, though I am pretty sure I'm set on the location, but the when part is February 2010. So see, I'm giving myself a good long time to get into running shape, so as not to stress myself too much. I've got a ways to go before my body is ready to take that kind of a physical beating. So anyway, I'm going to start now. My big strategy for this phase of my training? Walk more. Nothing specific, no calendars or plans, no mileage requirements or timelines. I'm simply going to walk more than I am currently walking now. I'm going to walk when it is convenient and when I feel like it. I'm going to go at my own pace and only as far as I want to go. It actually sounds kinda fun.
Today, as I walked from work to the bus stop instead of waiting for the train, I thought smugly to myself "I'm in training for a marathon." Awesome. :)
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
I negotiated!
I have been thinking about buying a new bed for a few weeks now, since T and I decided I would be leaving our old bed at the house. Anyway, I've been putting it off for a little while but tonight I decided it was the perfect time so I went to the mattress store. According to the internets (which are never wrong), you are supposed to negotiate for mattresses just like you would negotiate for a car. I had no idea about this, and I have totally been getting screwed because I have always paid the price as marked. Anyway, as I pulled into the parking lot of the mattress place, I began to get pretty anxious about going in there and getting what I needed. I sat in my car in the parking lot for a few minutes, just psyching myself up, then I finally went inside.
All of the websites about shopping for a mattress say to take your time and really lay on the mattresses as you would at home, try your favorite sleeping positions and really just get comfortable. I totally did this on several different mattresses and it made a definite difference because there were some that were comfortable when I first laid down that were not so much anymore after I had laid there for ten minutes or so. This taking my time thing is very out of character for me, so I was happy that I was able to make it work. The salesman was friendly but not too pushy while I was trying the mattresses out, and for the most part he left me alone.
I wanted to try one of the schmancy foam mattresses (think Tempurpedic) and see if they were all they were cracked up to be, so that's where I started. They were all marked pretty far out of my price range so I wasn't too attached to the idea of getting one. That is, until I actually laid on one. Holy crap, that shit was comfortable! As I was laying on it, the sales guy came by and said that they had 'just had a sale' on these (yeah right...there's always one sale or another going on) and that he was going to 'check in the back' and see if they still had any left at the sale price. The sale price was about half of what was listed on the price tag but more than I was planning to spend, so I just stayed quiet. I tried some more traditional spring mattresses and there was one that I liked pretty well but I kept coming back to the foam one.
I decided to just see how good of a deal I could get him to give me on the foam mattress, so I told him that was the one I was interested in. He gave me the 'sale' price and then started adding on things like delivery, the box spring, a frame, etc. Hundreds of dollars more. I told him I had intended to spend about $300 less than the 'sale' price for just the mattress and he was like "ooh..yeah...we can't go that low for that bed". I remained quiet and waited for him to counter with something a little closer to my offer and he poked away at his adding machine and came up with a price that was below the 'sale' price and also included all of the extras he had added on top. I had read that you should try to get them to throw in things like sheets or pillows if you get to a point where they won't budge on price, so I asked him about throwing some sheets in and he did. Small victory on that though, because they're 200 thread count and since I bought some 800 thread count sheets a month ago, I have been a total thread count snob. But it made me feel better to get them thrown in anyway.
So if you look at the actual retail price of the mattress (which in reality nobody ever actually pays), I ended up saving over 50% plus getting a bunch of stuff thrown in. Granted, the sales guy did most of the price cutting for me by mentioning the 'sale', so I'm guessing I probably ended up with a pretty fair price for what I got. I'm still proud of having negotiated though, even if it didn't save me a million bucks. And also, now I will have a bed to sleep in on moving day! A schmancy foam one! Woo!
All of the websites about shopping for a mattress say to take your time and really lay on the mattresses as you would at home, try your favorite sleeping positions and really just get comfortable. I totally did this on several different mattresses and it made a definite difference because there were some that were comfortable when I first laid down that were not so much anymore after I had laid there for ten minutes or so. This taking my time thing is very out of character for me, so I was happy that I was able to make it work. The salesman was friendly but not too pushy while I was trying the mattresses out, and for the most part he left me alone.
I wanted to try one of the schmancy foam mattresses (think Tempurpedic) and see if they were all they were cracked up to be, so that's where I started. They were all marked pretty far out of my price range so I wasn't too attached to the idea of getting one. That is, until I actually laid on one. Holy crap, that shit was comfortable! As I was laying on it, the sales guy came by and said that they had 'just had a sale' on these (yeah right...there's always one sale or another going on) and that he was going to 'check in the back' and see if they still had any left at the sale price. The sale price was about half of what was listed on the price tag but more than I was planning to spend, so I just stayed quiet. I tried some more traditional spring mattresses and there was one that I liked pretty well but I kept coming back to the foam one.
I decided to just see how good of a deal I could get him to give me on the foam mattress, so I told him that was the one I was interested in. He gave me the 'sale' price and then started adding on things like delivery, the box spring, a frame, etc. Hundreds of dollars more. I told him I had intended to spend about $300 less than the 'sale' price for just the mattress and he was like "ooh..yeah...we can't go that low for that bed". I remained quiet and waited for him to counter with something a little closer to my offer and he poked away at his adding machine and came up with a price that was below the 'sale' price and also included all of the extras he had added on top. I had read that you should try to get them to throw in things like sheets or pillows if you get to a point where they won't budge on price, so I asked him about throwing some sheets in and he did. Small victory on that though, because they're 200 thread count and since I bought some 800 thread count sheets a month ago, I have been a total thread count snob. But it made me feel better to get them thrown in anyway.
So if you look at the actual retail price of the mattress (which in reality nobody ever actually pays), I ended up saving over 50% plus getting a bunch of stuff thrown in. Granted, the sales guy did most of the price cutting for me by mentioning the 'sale', so I'm guessing I probably ended up with a pretty fair price for what I got. I'm still proud of having negotiated though, even if it didn't save me a million bucks. And also, now I will have a bed to sleep in on moving day! A schmancy foam one! Woo!
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